Why wait until September to start a degree?

London Met offers students the chance to start undergraduate degree courses in January.

Date: 7 October 2015

London Metropolitan University is giving students the opportunity to start a degree this January, rather than waiting until September 2016 to get their studies underway.

The January start enables students to fast-track their education through intensive learning, which allows them to begin their second year in September. In other words, starting a degree in January offers exactly the same qualification, but delivered in a shorter amount of time.

There are financial benefits for students starting in January, with a shorter first year of study meaning they can save money. Starting a degree in January is also the last opportunity to access the state maintenance grant before it is stopped in September 2016.

For many students, January starts offer convenience and flexibility.

Ignacio Fernandez, a second year BSc Computing student, started his degree in January 2015. “I had been living in the Netherlands, thinking about what to do with my career,” he said. “Once I had decided to do my degree in the UK, I didn’t want to wait a whole year so I decided to start in January.”

Ignacio has just begun his second year at London Met, but was able to switch to the BSc in Computer Forensic and IT Security degree, highlighting the flexibility offered by the January start programme.

In the first six months at London Met, January starters will experience more intense teaching in smaller groups as their skilled tutors integrate nine months of teaching into just six.

They don’t miss out on anything, they just learn it faster.

“The course is more intense but you are more focused in the modules,” Ingacio added. “But other than that, there’s not a huge difference between my experience and students who started in September.”